Without Explanations

"When I used to pick the berries for dinner on the East Quarter hills I did not eat one till I had done, for going a-berrying implies more than eating the berries. They at home got only the pudding: I got the forenoon out of doors and the appetite for the pudding."
-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

 

It has always amazed my family that when I pick berries I do not eat and pick berries at the same time- not if the purpose is to fill a bucket for a later on pie or jam or smashing up with sugar to eat on top of ice cream. I could never explain but I knew that was just how it is best done. Thoreau has put it so succinctly for me.

This morning I drug myself out of bed for the morning walk. It was past the dark of the almost morning and should have been into the sunrising of the day but it was not. It was gray and dreary and oh so humid. So humid that my companion cats were panting with pink tongues hanging out. I tell them to stay behind but they don't always listen because they are cats. As I made my way up the hill to begin the second lap I discovered a rainbow in the clouds. Very unusual since there had been no sun yet, nothing that I could see that would normally produce a rainbow and it was in such a spot that I can honestly say it was there just for me to discover. I stopped and just stood there taking it in. It lasted about 5 minutes fading in and out a bit but there it was, no explanation for why and yet it was and I was so blessed to have been a part of that rainbow.

The rainbow left me with great hope within and a smile without, then drop by drop by drop the rains began. I was at my stopping point but without explanation my soul pushed me to keep walking one foot in front of the other and I did my last lap in a great gentle but very wet rain. I stuck my tongue out to take in the drips that fell, I raised my hands and praised God for this amazing start to this day, I walked on and on smiling deeper as only a child dancing in the raindrops can- there were no puddles and my shoes are still too new for mud but.....there would be no explanation good enough to contain the joy of this moment. I wish you could have been here to share this morning with me. We could have danced together and laughed with rainfresh faces and known the true contentment of being children once again.